Pass the popcorn...
...because it's time for a film review post! And I'm actually getting somewhat close to catching up to myself in real life, so I can't exactly call these "old reviews" anymore, lol. But regardless, here are today's (minviendha, are you getting this?):
( Valkyrie )
( Valkyrie )
In this day in age, or even fifty years ago when Doubt was set, when a woman wants to ruin a man and takes the sexual deviance/harassment rumor route to doing so, the man literally has no way out.
Except this has always been more of a neurotic male paranoid fantasy than a reality; it happens a lot more in movies and fiction than it actually does in real life. Everyone "knows somebody" who has been falsely pilloried in the rumor mill, but can rarely point to a population whose lives have been ruined in the way you describe.
Look, I know it happens. By which I mean, in the history of humanity, it (false accusations by women against men of sexual harassment/assault, or abuse of children) has occurred infrequently but often enough for people to seize on it as a wildly popular storytelling trope playing on fears of female/queer manipulative power. But if false sexual harassment rumors/accusations were this tactical nuke option that all women have and can set free at any time, we wouldn't have situations like the one that just popped up in the news the other week where the wife of Clarence Thomas called up Anita Hill and asked her to apologize for accusing Thomas of sexual harassment. If there's really "no way out" Thomas wouldn't be a supreme court justice and Anita Hill's name synonymous with "lying, opportunistic attention whore" in the minds of many Americans.
It also wouldn't explain why so many men in power actually get away with sexual harassment and even assault of those over whom they hold power. These are basically the only accusations - whether they're made in the rumor circus or a court of law - where people automatically suspect that the "wronged" party probably did something to deserve it. Or, because of the popularity of this fictional trope, that they are lying to ruin the nice man's pure, pristine reputation.
Considering how many women's (and, hell, men's) lives are actually ruined by being victims of sexual harassment and assault, and how many children suffer sexual abuse, embracing the idea that false accusations are more dangerous (and whether that was your intention or not, that was the feeling I got from your expression of pure terror at the thought of being falsely accused of sexual harassment or deviance) is kind of mindblowing.
Also, as something of an aside, while I have not seen Doubt yet, I understood that it never at any point conclusively "reveals" the truth of what happened. (Reading other reviews of the film seems to indicate that's the common consensus, anyway.) Evidence does exist for his innocence as well as his guilt. I find it interesting that you're absolutely positive the accusations made against the priest character were false, when - although Streep's character does certainly lie about what she does and doesn't know - the story itself doesn't give us that easy out.
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Except this has always been more of a neurotic male paranoid fantasy than a reality; it happens a lot more in movies and fiction than it actually does in real life. Everyone "knows somebody" who has been falsely pilloried in the rumor mill, but can rarely point to a population whose lives have been ruined in the way you describe.
Not true. Not. Fucking. True.
This is not an anecdote on my observations of society. This is not me "knowing someone" who has had that happen to them. This is my own bloody perspective. I've been accused of serious sexual harassment that I was absolutely innocent of, and I've had absolutely no one believe in that innocence, because people were lying to ruin my pure, pristine reputation, and because the girls in question were unquestionably believed over me. It pretty much ruined both high school and college for me. I don't discount anyone whose life was horrifically impacted by actual harassment, but my perspective actually lends itself to what you accurately described as my "expression of pure terror." Because I've been there, and because I'd cut off my own arm with Zollo's arakh rather than go through it again. We all have our own issues. This one happens to be mine. I'll thank you to respect it.
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I'm a little confused by your subject line. I tend to assume that if a LJ entry has open comments, that the content of that entry is up for discussion. I do not PM people about the contents of their posts; that seems oddly intrusive to me, as if it demands an answer. If you would prefer not to have a public conversation on the topic, which is absolutely your right, please feel free to delete my post and this thread.
I see what you meant in your comment above, apologies. Your comment and mine hit at the same time; I certainly didn't see it before I posted.
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